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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Amish Missionaries

Andy Weaver

Who Are the Amish?

Thank you for inviting my wife and I to Loma Linda.

We're going to tell you a little bit about that.

For those of you that have been wondering, no, she's not my daughter, she's my wife.

Sometimes when we go places, people ask me about my daughter, and I say, no, this is not my daughter.

I got gray real young and my wife didn't age too much.

Even after having 8 kids, she still looked like a girl.

And so the last 2 years, she's shown her age a little more, but she still looks beautiful.

The oldest child is 17 years old, and the youngest is 7.

It's hard to remember, because as soon as you remember, they change it.

They keep changing their age, and I can never keep up.

The oldest is a girl and the youngest is a girl.

I thank God for that because the number 3 is a boy.

There's something a little different about him.

This afternoon We got introduced to Loma Linda a little bit.

We always wanted to go to Southern California.

These days our church back home has grown quite a bit.

I will tell you a little bit more about that tomorrow afternoon.

But if you get an invitation to go to Southern California after a cold winter in Ohio, you go.

I was really impressed this afternoon when we were driving.

Our friends, whom we were staying with, took us to the park.

She said, it was probably grapefruits or oranges.

I started watching and I saw lemons, and I thought, this is unreal.

I didn't think we're gonna see something like that in this time of the year.

And so walking back, we found, guess what?

Okay, How many of you are Bible-believing Christians?

OK, all of you are Bible-believing Christians.

Do you know that in the Bible, it says if you walk through somebody's field, it's OK to pluck grain and eat them?

And so we were put to the test this afternoon.

And so we were like, are we going to be Bible Christians?

Or are we just going to walk by and not eat any?

So I told Naomi, I said, We're not going to pick any.

We're not going to pick any from the trees.

But we're going to see if there's any on the ground that look like they're clearly not going to be picked up.

So we walk by the fence and we see grapefruit.

And It kind of looked like it was half eaten by the time we got it through the chain link fence.

In Ohio, it's full of Amish people, and a lot of them do commercial produce.

Similar to, I guess, California does a lot of that too.

But it's commercial, but it's like maybe 20 acres or so, so it's smaller scale.

And then we have lots of farmers markets.

And the city folks, we don't live far from Cleveland, Akron and the city.

And so the city folks come out and they're just amazed at how our vegetables taste and everything because they're actually vine-ripened and that kind of thing.

But this afternoon the tables were turned.

I've never had oranges that actually were tree ripened.

And so We had orange first, and then we found the grapefruit.

We went by a lemon tree, and Naomi goes, Why doesn't it just fall down?

I think it's okay that we ate it, because we met a lady on the road and we asked her, was that you?

We asked her, so somebody from your group said it was okay.

So I'm not saying this because you're supposed to say, well, you know, I had tree-ripened oranges and they were better than anything I've ever eaten.

So thank you for inviting us to Loma Linda, especially at the end of March when the citrus is ripe and the farmers are not doing their job and keeping them picked up.

Tonight, we're going to talk a little bit about the Bible.

And then, I know wherever I go, people have heard all the theology you can teach.

Wherever I go, people have questions about the Amish.

And so I will share some, probably more, you probably say the strength of the Amish community.

And then tomorrow at 10 o'clock, we will share our testimony, how we became Adventist.

And you know, actually our personal story of what it was like to be raised Amish, and then why we left the Amish church and became part of the Adventist church.

I tell you, if you grew up Adventist and you don't share your faith, you don't know what you have.

Anabaptist Remnant: Andy’s Testimony

For those of you that were not here last night, maybe I'll just invite her to come forward 1 more time.

If you are around this afternoon, my wife and I will be taking question and answers.

We have a mission in Ohio that is a self-supporting mission that is supporting ministries of Seventh-Divinist Church that's part of ASI.

We will be sharing with you about that this afternoon at 04:00.

So this is my favorite and only wife, Naomi.

We're just blessed and glad to be here today.

I tell you, our time here has been amazing.

You have really gone beyond our expectations, very much so.

In fact, the whole citrus story has become kind of a funny story.

We even went to bed with oranges last night.

And not literally in Tibet, but we took oranges to our room.

And so this morning when we woke up, we had oranges.

And somebody just brought us more citrus.

We have to figure out yet how we get them back.

We may have to eat them in order to take them back with us, but we shall see.

This morning I thought what I would do is share a little bit about our personal life story, being born and raised within the Amish community.

But my concern was that this would become about us and not about Christ.

And because At the end of the day, as the Apostle Paul says, we have nothing that we didn't receive.

God receives all the glory and the honor, but it's very awesome how God has His children everywhere.

And 1 of the things that really, really impresses me with this congregation is the diversity.

I tell you, being born and raised Amish, we had never witnessed that in church.

When I first went to a church and there was a black person there, I was so overjoyed Because I had never imagined that I would be part of a movement that was united on belief from different worlds, from different nationalities.

And to me that's the most beautiful thing.

And it is really a testimony that God has brought us together.

I'd like to start in the book of Matthew.

And we're going to go to a very familiar chapter.

And We're going to read a few verses that are very relevant.

I'm sure here at Advent Hope you have heard them many times.

But we're going to read that and then we're going to go to Revelation 14 for just a little bit.

And if you would, let's just bow our heads 1 more time before we get into His Word, and then we'll read in God's Word for a little bit.

Father in Heaven, we're just grateful to be gathered here at Loma Linda.

We're grateful for the opportunity to come together as like-minded believers.

And Father, you know that each 1 of us, we have our struggles in life.

But we're just grateful for the escape, for the Sabbath that You have given us where we can come together and we can woo 1 another on.

We can encourage 1 another on and we can be a blessing to 1 another.

And Father, we just believe that the only way that that will happen is if You are in our presence.

So we're inviting You to be present through the Holy Spirit today.

We just ask that you would speak to our heart through your word and through the leadings of our lives.

And you know, I think especially since COVID, these messages have become a lot more relevant.

Because if, you know, I'm sure you have experience here in California, what we have experienced in Ohio.

A lot of ideas, a lot of conspiracy ideas.

And the question is, are some of these talks just conspiracy or are they truth?

And so we look at the pandemic and everything and we ask ourselves the question, ask God's people, how do we respond to the pandemic?

Matthew chapter 24, I'm going to start with verse 3.

And for those of you that may be using a gadget, I will be starting with verse 3 in the New King James Version.

And talking about Jesus, it says, Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be?

And what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?

So Jesus had just left the temple and he told them, your house will be left unto you desolate.

And then Jesus goes on to say in verse 4, And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no 1 deceives you.

For many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ and will deceive many.

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." Verse 7, For Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake." So we know from verse 9 that the issues are going to be global, and they're going to involve the death penalty.

And now in verse 14, it tells us what our response as God's people should be to all of the chaos.

And it says, "...and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then will the end come.

So the gospel that Jesus preached, the gospel of Jesus Christ, will be preached in all the world to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

We know that from Revelation chapter 14, that piggybacks on this, that says, this gospel shall go to every nation, kindred, tongue and people.

If you look at the culture here, the culture is represented here.

That the gospel that Jesus preached works.

God has an equal love for all of His children.

And even though we're saved by grace through faith, we're justified by faith, isn't it important that we rightly represent God?

That is why this movement, the Seventh-day Adventist movement, is so relevant, I believe.

Not only do we preach God's end-time message as given in Matthew 24, verse 14 and in Revelation 14, the 3 angels' messages.

We are also very particular about other doctrines which some people believe are not important because they're just doctrinal issues.

Because we're justified by faith, so why worry about doctrinal issues?

The reason we are concerned about doctrinal issues is because we love God and we want to rightly represent Him.

And so if our teachings are not correct, and now we're misrepresenting God, and that becomes a problem if we love God.

That is what attracted me to the Seventh-Day Adventist movement.

That and 1 other thing, we'll talk about that a little bit later too, but when I read the book Desire of Ages, I discovered something.

Looking Forward in Mission: Q&A

Last night I talked a little bit about just the culture, the Amish culture.

And today I did too, but it's more of our personal story.

And so tonight I would like to share about our ministry.

I'd like to talk to you about that and share with you what we're doing to reach Amish people with the 3 Angels Messages and a little bit about our success in that area.

And then we're going to open the floor for questions and we'll do question and answer.

I just feel better if I pray too and for the Lord to be in our presence.

Father in Heaven, thank you for this Sabbath.

We're just grateful for the gift of this Sabbath where we can just get away from the cares of this world, the trials, and just the pressures of life.

Father, we're truly very grateful for a church family that is global, that comes from every nation, kinder, tongue, and people.

And we can just see this is a living example here of Advent Hope, what it looks like when the gospel is at work.

We can be together and there's no strife as the world portrays it.

We're just brothers and sisters in Christ.

Thank you, Father, for showing Naomi and I that today, what that looks like.

Father, we're just asking your blessing today on our presentation, that you would be glorified and that the Holy Spirit would be our teacher.

All right, so I think my first slide was a, I don't know, you tell me.

I rely heavily on young millennials when I travel because I don't know my technology.

There should be 1 slide before that, but it's okay because we'll probably have it at the end.

So if you go on Google and you take, you Google for a picture of Amish baptism, this picture comes up and it's actually Naomi and myself in 2014.

It's not very much of an Amish baptism, but it was Naomi myself, because Amish baptisms take place in a home, usually, during church services, because they just sprinkle.

It was in August, and I tell you, that water was so cold.

Knocked the breath out of me when we were baptized.

And I've since, like I always hated cold water on my body.

And so 1 time when I was sick, somebody told me, if you do hot and cold showers you don't get sick anymore and I thought well that wouldn't be worse than being sick and because a couple by 3 years ago we had camp meeting and I'll tell you about that here in a little bit it was like very hot like 96 degrees and that's hot for Ohio we came home that night inside inside our house was like 80 90 degrees it was crazy hot And so 1 of our friends asked me for just a bucket of cold water.

I splashed a little bit of water on myself and I said, no, we ain't doing this.

I told him, if this is the test of manhood, I'm not a man and that's okay.

But then when I was sick, I started doing the cold shower, hot and cold, and I would scream out, scream.

Naomi can tell you, you know, the screaming, and it was so cold.

So we had baptisms in October this past year, and it was very cold, but I think I've become stronger because I do hot and cold showers.

Anyways, so that's our baptism on August 23, 2014.

As far as we knew at that time, and as far as I still know at that time, we were the only Amish people that had become members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

But when I read the book Great Controversy on the Reformation, especially Martin Luther, that gave me the faith.

I read that and I thought, God can use anyone that's willing.

And I thought, this message has not really reached the Amish community.

You have co-partners that have given books out, but nobody's really working as a missionary to the Amish to get the 3 inches messages to the Amish people.

And So I was standing in my workshop 1 day, and I was miserable, not knowing what to do with my life.

That was before we made a decision to actually embrace the Sabbath, just before.

And then I remembered that, having thrown all the books away that I had gotten, I remembered that I still had 1 in the barn, a great controversy that I was going to give to my Baptist friend.

And so I went and got it and I was I read about Martin Luther.

And that's when I made up my mind that I want to be like Martin Luther, like, No, I won't be like Martin Luther, but I can be like a mini Martin Luther as far as being available for God to reach the Amish people.

And that's where that was born from reading that book.

So, after we were baptized, we had church service in our home.

We went to an Adventist Church Twice I think and we had a very hard time with the culture Because we were raised in a in a culture as I showed you this morning that was very uniform The ladies would sit on 1 side, the men on the other side, and everybody, the men were all dressed alike, the ladies all dressed alike, and so this is, that is all we knew our whole life.

It was in our DNA, we were like eighth generation Amish.

And so We had a very hard time with the culture, and I knew that, oh, thank you, I knew that this is going to be a major obstacle in reaching the Amish people, because if you reach them and they go to just a regular Adventist church, the culture's gonna be a real obstacle, because they have real hangups about lifestyle.

Even if they learn biblical truth, there are certain lifestyle practices that's going to prevent them from becoming members of the church.

And so on the way home that day, I was thinking about this.

I had real thoughts of going back to the Amish.

But I didn't know how to go forward because I just felt like there were so many obstacles.

And so I prayed on the way home, coming down the interstate.

I said, Lord, if you're with me, help me to start an Amish Seventh-day Adventist church.

Because we have Korean, we have all these different, you know, Adventist churches that kind of cater to the culture.

And so that was my prayer on the way home from church.

And so I guess I kind of forgot about my prayer.

And we would have kind of have church service at our home, but it was a bit overwhelming because some people would arrive like 09:00 in the morning, and some people would arrive at 07:00 at night, and then sit around until 10 30 at night.

And so, and that was great for a while, but eventually that wears you out.

And we really appreciated the support and, you know, we just had great, great times.

But it kind of wear, especially in Neom, it's hard on a mother with 8 kids, doing that for a while, too long.

So, 1 Sabbath afternoon, we had a bunch of Adventists come in from a church about an hour away.

And we sat down, and we were just getting to know them and we were really excited to get to know each other.

And 1 of the couples asked me a question.

They said, so Andy, I hear you have a vision.

And they said, well, what do you wanna do?

And I said, well, it'd be nice to have a place to worship close by, and then we go from there.

And so the next picture is a picture of a fireworks store.

I guess it was kind of narrow, but it's kind of long.

Now, before Fandom bought it, when I was young, I worked on this property.

This property is almost adjacent to the property where I was born and raised.

And so this property was for sale by the time that we were converted.

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Series

Amish Missionaries

Anabaptist Remnant: Andy’s Testimony

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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